On Mon, 3 May 2004, joanna bujes wrote:
> Woj writes:
>
> "To illustrate how apolitical the 1960s were, I suggest watching the
> Beatles anthology available on DVD. Here we have a group of young men
> ostensibly proud of their working class origins (they even retained
> their working class accent, which was a big faux pass in Britain)
> singing sentimental songs about teenage love and acting like clowns for
> the enjoyment of the booboisie. I do not think that any of their lyrics
> ever mentioned the dreaded u-word. This is the image of emaciated
> working class, longing for cheap sentimentality and consumer goodies."
> -------------------
> Well....
>
>
[J. provides lyrics of "working class hero"]:
To be fair, this wasn't on a Beatles album; it was on Plastic Ono Band. Woj has a point here. Even purportedly "political" Beatles songs are quite naive--e.g., "Revolution":
You tell me it's the institution well you know you better free your mind instead
(As if higher consciousness will automagically solve social problems!) John was a brilliant songwriter, but political strategy was never his forte.
Miles